Kent Police Second Least Likely To Charge Domestic Abusers For Crimes
Kent police have the second lowest amount of criminal charges per 100 domestic abuse crimes, according to official figures.
The data is found in Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) domestic abuse police report.
In the 12 months leading up to June 30th 2016, Kent Police have the second lowest amount of domestic abuse charges (per 100 domestic abuse crimes).
Kent Police were second lowest out of 43 constabularies, just above Hampshire.
HMICFRS state that: “There is still an unacceptable degree of variation in the rate at which alleged perpetrators of domestic abuse are charged with criminal offences.
“In addition, the percentage of charges has continued to fall over the past three years.”
Figures taken from HMICFRS’ ‘progress report on the police response to domestic abuse’.
A Kent Police spokesman has said: “Kent Police has invested heavily in both training of staff and quality assuring our response to domestic abuse and ensuring that the focus is upon doing the right thing for the victim and wider family.”
Data from The Crime Survey for England and Wales estimated that 1.9 million adults experienced domestic abuse from March 2016 to March 2017.
It was reported that 1.2 million women and 713,000 men had experienced some from of domestic abuse.
In the official report by HMICFRS they state that: “The level of domestic abuse recorded by police has increased by over 60% in less than 3 years.”
As well as Kent Police being second least likely to charge for a domestic abuse crime, they are also second highest for the most amount of recorded crimes related to domestic abuse.
This means that Kent Police are second highest for the amount of recorded crime with a domestic abuse marker, yet second lowest for charging domestic abusers.
The HMICFRS report mentioned that, “In England and Wales, there is an unrelenting and increasing demand for the police to respond to incidents of domestic abuse.”
The UK’s leading domestic abuse charity for women, Women’s Aid’s CEO Katie Goshe has said:” We know that far too many cases are dropped due to victim’s withdrawing their support from the prosecution.
“It is no wonder that women who do not receive the right response after reporting domestic abuse to the police withdraw their support from the prosecution.”
Domestic abuse is not just classified as violence, since 2015 the UK’s government included controlling behaviour and coercive control as domestic abuse.